One thought a majority of people have is "I want to lose body fat". This isn't a surprise nor is it necessarily a bad thought to have. Most people go through some sort of dislike for their body at one point in their life or another. Hell, we have a phrase for most people's teenage years called "the awkward phase" where your body is going through changes and you don't want to leave the house. Well, if you're like most normal Americans, you've gone through other phases during life where you aren't happy with your weight whether it's because of a busy schedule, illness, accident, etc. And there's always that one person who is the self appointed expert (not including me) and they chime in with their 2 cents and say something to the effect of "hey, you should start running!" or walking, or jump rope or some other tedious activity. Not only does that activity leave you feeling bored out of your mind, but does not carry out the promises that were made about said activity. Far less often are people telling overweight individuals to engage in some sort of resistance training program. Now, if running is your go to activity that's great, but it may not help with fat loss or performance as once thought and may not be as superior to weight training as once believed either. There is copious amounts of research done on aerobic activity. Up until Arnold made weight training popular, most people didn't touch weights! Weight training was for "those guys" or "meat heads" and was thought to have more negative effects than positive benefits. So where does that leave us? Well, in the research world it leaves us with tons of research on endurance activities and small amounts of research using resistance training as their means of activity. On top of that, most resistance training research uses poorly programmed models and of course they all use untrained people, something notorious in exercise research. Therein lies the problem; people who quote research they read 10 years ago or haven't kept up with research tend to stick to aerobic activity because that's what is mostly done. The so to speak "new school" researchers, clinicians, and fitness enthusiasts rely more on resistance training and lately more research has come out about weight training and it's positive benefits. One area that the aerobic enthusiasts tend to quote most is lipid profiles and how endurance exercise is "better for your heart". While, this isn't inherently wrong, it wasn't until recently that researchers started recording weight training and its effects on blood lipid profiles to compare the two. Needless to say, it isn't that different. This article will point out benefits associated with weight training specific to adipose tissue and it's secreted proteins called adipokines and proteins released from muscle called myokines.
Background:
What is adipose tissue?
Isn't it just fat? The stuff that sits on your hips or your butt or on your triceps, reminding you that you need to work out every time you wave your arm? Well, besides insulation and protection (things most bio teachers told you in 8th grade bio) adipose tissue is a living tissue that is made up of cells and is involved in many actions in the body. High adipose tissue can lead to increased insulin resistance, high blood pressure and something that isn't regularly discussed; inflammation. Adipose tissue can release a whole slew of inflammatory markers (cytokines) that can wreak havoc on our bodies. Mostly we think of inflammation when we get a cut or sprain an ankle, but when it comes to our cells, inflammation is no joke and is now viewed as a disease that is related to obesity. Dubbed the "silent killer" some of these inflammation markers are associated with high blood pressure, diabetes and different types of cancers. Among these cytokines are chemokines, interleukins and tumor necrosis factors (TNF-a for this article). All these cytokines have their purpose, but when in excess can have negative effects and having excess fat can exacerbate these reactions.
Now up to this point everything about adipokines has been bad. And frankly, most adipokines are not good in excess, but one adipokine is worth having and that is adiponectin. Cytokines like TNFa set off a cascade of effects that leads to insulin resistance, atherosclerosis and apoptosis (cell death), but adiponectin essentially does the opposite. Adiponectin reduces insulin resistance, is anti-inflammatory and regulates free fatty acid breakdown (FFA). Adiponectin is also released by adipose tissue and is seen in high amounts in healthy active people. It is, however, down regulated in the obese or overweight. The good news about all this is that you can increase your adiponectin and decrease other harmful cytokines by simply losing weight and being active. Since I am biased toward resistance training and excess cardio can shrink muscle mass along with the fact adiponectin is upregulated with ANAEROBIC activity, I am going to provide information about how you can upregulate this adipokine along with some anti-inflammatory markers.
The Research:
As I stated earlier, most research that has been done in exercise studies has been based using endurance exercises. This doesn't change with respect to adipokines and their relation to exercise, however, more research is surfacing about resistance training/high intensity training (HIIT) and it's benefits on inflammatory markers and the coveted anti-inflammatory markers. When under stress (exercise) muscle cells release their own products termed "myokines". The interesting finding is that both skeletal muscles and adipose tissue release something called IL-6. When released by macrophages (immune cell) that infiltrate adipose tissue it can have an inflammatory effect, but when released by muscle cells it has a vastly different effect; it is anti-inflammatory. It does this by inhibiting TNF-a, basically the "powerhouse" of inflammation as I touched on earlier. One question is how are they different? When released by macrophages it is in response to infection, trauma, etc and is released to elicit an immune response. When released from muscle cells it is stimulated through a different pathway that doesn't utilize the inflammatory cytokines (i.e. TNF-a) and acts against TNF-a to decrease inflammation. One pathway is through calcium signaling. So why does that matter? Well, calcium is used in muscle contraction. One theory states that the more a muscle contracts, that will equate to more calcium released during contraction. This extra calcium may lead to IL-6 release among other anti-inflammatory myokines/cytokines being released.
There are about 75 different adipokines alone and the number increases when added with myokines. I'm not going to touch some of these others that are involved (IL-10, NF-kB, etc). As I said earlier, our body uses all these structures and are important with respect to immune response and our immune system as a whole, but it is when they are in excess is when problems are seen. One adipokine that is GOOD when upregulated is adiponectin. Adiponectin is an adipokine that is involved in regulation of FFA's and glucose metabolism. In obese individuals adiponectin is actually seen in lower quantities and can make way for diseases to start taking hold (type 2 diabetes, METs) when compared to normal healthy individuals. Most of the time any activity is better than no activity, but there are times when that is not always true i.e. excessive walking for an older person, doing 100 reps of mindless cable fly's. Upregulating adiponectin is also one of those times. There has been evidence that anaerobic training (sprinting, weight training) is better at upregulating adiponectin than continuous aerobic activity. There was some improvement within endurance groups, but anaerobic groups were seen as more statistically significant and had higher levels than aerobic groups. Along with higher adiponectin levels, these groups saw better glucose tolerance, muscle growth, strength and better composition changes. Essentially giving what everyone is asking for: being physically fit while also being metabolically fit.
Conclusion:
The point to all this information (and slight ranting) is to help people understand. Understand that what some star does for fitness is bogus, that out-dated fitness "gurus" are useless and that everybody can/should lift weights. If weight training isn't a favorite, that's ok, but at least try for a couple of times a week. Not everybody is going to enjoy the same activities and there's nothing wrong with that. It's safe to say that activity has a multitude of benefits and while I do support general activity for everybody there comes a time where activity should start to be progressive and build on itself. Stopping and starting a running program or attending a crossfit class once a month is not going to make things better. Not only is being consistent the important factor, but choosing the correct a form of activity is important also. Now having said that, puttering around in a gym doing curls all day is not the best either, but try new things out. Get off the treadmill and learn how to squat or bench press or even leg press. The goal is to keep adding on to the goals you've already met and I believe information is a tool to help you get there. It may be something new and strange, but learning is what makes us better.
Now up to this point everything about adipokines has been bad. And frankly, most adipokines are not good in excess, but one adipokine is worth having and that is adiponectin. Cytokines like TNFa set off a cascade of effects that leads to insulin resistance, atherosclerosis and apoptosis (cell death), but adiponectin essentially does the opposite. Adiponectin reduces insulin resistance, is anti-inflammatory and regulates free fatty acid breakdown (FFA). Adiponectin is also released by adipose tissue and is seen in high amounts in healthy active people. It is, however, down regulated in the obese or overweight. The good news about all this is that you can increase your adiponectin and decrease other harmful cytokines by simply losing weight and being active. Since I am biased toward resistance training and excess cardio can shrink muscle mass along with the fact adiponectin is upregulated with ANAEROBIC activity, I am going to provide information about how you can upregulate this adipokine along with some anti-inflammatory markers.
The Research:
As I stated earlier, most research that has been done in exercise studies has been based using endurance exercises. This doesn't change with respect to adipokines and their relation to exercise, however, more research is surfacing about resistance training/high intensity training (HIIT) and it's benefits on inflammatory markers and the coveted anti-inflammatory markers. When under stress (exercise) muscle cells release their own products termed "myokines". The interesting finding is that both skeletal muscles and adipose tissue release something called IL-6. When released by macrophages (immune cell) that infiltrate adipose tissue it can have an inflammatory effect, but when released by muscle cells it has a vastly different effect; it is anti-inflammatory. It does this by inhibiting TNF-a, basically the "powerhouse" of inflammation as I touched on earlier. One question is how are they different? When released by macrophages it is in response to infection, trauma, etc and is released to elicit an immune response. When released from muscle cells it is stimulated through a different pathway that doesn't utilize the inflammatory cytokines (i.e. TNF-a) and acts against TNF-a to decrease inflammation. One pathway is through calcium signaling. So why does that matter? Well, calcium is used in muscle contraction. One theory states that the more a muscle contracts, that will equate to more calcium released during contraction. This extra calcium may lead to IL-6 release among other anti-inflammatory myokines/cytokines being released.
There are about 75 different adipokines alone and the number increases when added with myokines. I'm not going to touch some of these others that are involved (IL-10, NF-kB, etc). As I said earlier, our body uses all these structures and are important with respect to immune response and our immune system as a whole, but it is when they are in excess is when problems are seen. One adipokine that is GOOD when upregulated is adiponectin. Adiponectin is an adipokine that is involved in regulation of FFA's and glucose metabolism. In obese individuals adiponectin is actually seen in lower quantities and can make way for diseases to start taking hold (type 2 diabetes, METs) when compared to normal healthy individuals. Most of the time any activity is better than no activity, but there are times when that is not always true i.e. excessive walking for an older person, doing 100 reps of mindless cable fly's. Upregulating adiponectin is also one of those times. There has been evidence that anaerobic training (sprinting, weight training) is better at upregulating adiponectin than continuous aerobic activity. There was some improvement within endurance groups, but anaerobic groups were seen as more statistically significant and had higher levels than aerobic groups. Along with higher adiponectin levels, these groups saw better glucose tolerance, muscle growth, strength and better composition changes. Essentially giving what everyone is asking for: being physically fit while also being metabolically fit.
Conclusion:
The point to all this information (and slight ranting) is to help people understand. Understand that what some star does for fitness is bogus, that out-dated fitness "gurus" are useless and that everybody can/should lift weights. If weight training isn't a favorite, that's ok, but at least try for a couple of times a week. Not everybody is going to enjoy the same activities and there's nothing wrong with that. It's safe to say that activity has a multitude of benefits and while I do support general activity for everybody there comes a time where activity should start to be progressive and build on itself. Stopping and starting a running program or attending a crossfit class once a month is not going to make things better. Not only is being consistent the important factor, but choosing the correct a form of activity is important also. Now having said that, puttering around in a gym doing curls all day is not the best either, but try new things out. Get off the treadmill and learn how to squat or bench press or even leg press. The goal is to keep adding on to the goals you've already met and I believe information is a tool to help you get there. It may be something new and strange, but learning is what makes us better.
